Firm enemies

As man and wife they were rarely troubled
by the surge of raging scattergun hormones
and, in time, they became firm enemies,
probing each other's weaknesses on a daily basis,
like two animals not of the same species:
her deep growls, his nervous inopportune
laughter. He was her jumpy, half-starved hyena
and she was his ill-tempered lioness,
roaring for the children they could never have.
They lived and died in their council flat.
But they had their moments. He kept goldfish
and she gave food to the neighbours' cats.

Poem called "Coupled"
By Jim Alderson
In issue no 62 of Obsessed with Pipework